The most significant issues that humans face today include a growing population, an altering climate, reliance on pesticides, the appearance of novel infectious agents, and accumulation industrial waste. production agricultural goods has also been subject to great number shifts, often known as revolutions, which have influenced by progression civilization, technology, general human advancement....

Endophytes are non-pathogenic microbes living inside plants. We asked whether endophytic species were conserved in the agriculturally important plant genus Zea as it became domesticated from its wild ancestors (teosinte) to modern maize (corn) and moved from Mexico to Canada. Kernels from populations of four different teosintes and 10 different maize varieties were screened for endophytic bacte...

Fungi associated with photosynthetic organisms are major determinants of terrestrial biomass, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem productivity from the poles to the equator. Whereas most fungi are known because of their fruit bodies (e.g., saprotrophs), symptoms (e.g., pathogens), or emergent properties as symbionts (e.g., lichens), the majority of fungal diversity is thought to occur among species...

Endophytic microorganisms are to be found in virtually every plant on earth. Endophytic microorganisms exist within the living tissues of most plant species and do so in a variety of relationships, ranging from symbiotic to slightly pathogenic. Root endophytic microorganisms are seen as promising alternatives to replace chemical pesticides and fertilizers in sustainable and organic agriculture ...

Endophytes are novel sources of natural bioactive compounds. This study seeks endophytes that produce the anticancer enzyme l-asparaginase, to harness their potential for mass production. Four plants with anticancer properties; Cymbopogon citratus, Murraya koenigii, Oldenlandia diffusa and Pereskia bleo, were selected as host plants. l-Asparaginase-producing endophytes were detected by the form...

Endophytic fungi live their whole life within host tissues usually without any visible symptoms. Their vertical transmission (seed-plant-seed) has been well described and documented. However, horizontal transmission (plant-plant) needs more clarification. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which endophytes move vertically in ecotypes of perennial ryegrass and whether there is evi...

Endophytic fungi are plant symbionts living asymptomatically within plant tissues. Neotyphodium spp., which are asexual vertically transmitted systemic fungal endophytes of cool-season grasses, are predicted to be plant mutualists. These endophytes increase host plant resistance to environmental stresses and/or increase the production of alkaloid-based herbivore deterrents. The ubiquity of this...

Understanding community dynamics and processes, such as the factors that generate and maintain biodiversity, drive succession, and affect invasion susceptibility, is a central goal in ecology and evolution. While most studies of how species interactions affect communities have focused on highly visible macroorganisms, we show that mutualistic microfungal endophytes have community-level effects ...

Efforts to introduce pathogen resistance into landscape tree species by breeding may have unintended consequences for fungal diversity. To address this issue, we compared the frequency and diversity of endophytic fungi and defensive phenolic metabolites in elm (Ulmus spp.) trees with genotypes known to differ in resistance to Dutch elm disease. Our results indicate that resistant U. minor and U...

1. Fungal endophytes are microfungi that reside asymptomatically inside of leaf tissues, increasing in density and diversity through time after leaves flush. Previous studies have suggested that the presence of fungal endophytes in the harvest material of leaf-cutting ants (Atta colombica, Guérin-Méneville) may negatively affect the ants and their fungal cultivar. 2. In the present study, it wa...